Socks but no jobs in R1.6bn splurge

Thousands of desperate young South Africans spent nearly four years on a R1.6-billion job training project - but all they ended up with was a pair of socks, towels, belts and a bit of pocket money.

Some of the 14500 young people did not set foot in a classroom during the project, described by some participants as a "waste of time".

The National Rural Youth Service Corps was the brainchild of the Department of Rural Development and was meant to provide unemployed young people with the skills to help them get a job.

The programme was started in 2010. Some of the participants spent three weeks of induction at the luxury four-star Hans Merensky golf estate in Phalaborwa, Limpopo.

The aim of the programme was to address South Africa's massive unemployment, particularly among the rural youth.

It was meant to offer basic courses such as construction and agriculture. Students were to study at further education and training (FET) colleges, followed by work experience, before going to a military base for "character-building".

But not everyone got that far. Last weekend about 180 were sent home from a military base in the Northern Cape because they had not done their FET phase or undergone work experience.

Some students took to social networking sites to vent their frustration. One wrote on Facebook: "These people make me tired, eish, four years in the programme and I have achieved nothing."

Some of them stayed in bed and breakfast lodgings for nearly a year doing nothing because the department had failed to supply tools for their practical exercises .

Part of the R1.6-billion spent so far includes:

• About R270-million on monthly stipends of R1320 a student. Half of this had to be given to their families for food;
• Paying FET colleges more than R190-million for training;
• R97.3-million for catering, accommodation, transport and venues; and
• R10.5-million on a three-week induction programme for about 2000 participants from Limpopo, North West and the Western Cape in January last year.

Several trainees who were contacted complained they were still unemployable.

The basic courses offered at the FET colleges included welding, electrical engineering, house-building, poultry production, car repair and boiler-making. These were the equivalent of subjects done in Grade 10 at schools.

One of the students is a young mother who left school after completing Grade 11.

She has been collecting a stipend while sitting at home since September 2010. She was supposed to have been registered for a national certificate in office administration.

"I phoned the coordinator and he said they forgot about me. He said the course had already been completed," she said.

Although she selected a new course, she is still waiting for news on her admission - all the while getting the R1320 a month stipend.

"I have wasted four years of my life. We don't want that money; we just want the skills they promised to give us," she said.

A 26-year-old father of two from KwaZulu-Natal, who has been receiving his stipend since 2011, is in the same position.

It costs the department R131360, including a stipend of R63360 over four years, for each participant.

Besides those who have not yet attended FET colleges, a further 1763 trainees have not had any work experience.

One participant who spent almost a year waiting in a guesthouse because there were no tools for her to do practical work said "the office" instructed them to "sit and wait" at their accommodation.

When the tools finally arrived in November they were the wrong ones and their group was still not allowed on site.

"We called the office and they said: 'It's fine. It's almost a year. Why can't you fill the logbook saying you've done everything?' We were told to fake entries in new logbooks that were given to us in November."

The department said in a statement that the programme had a positive effect because "the stipend puts food on the table for many rural households". "The youth are skilled in areas relevant to rural development linked to economic priorities in the various provinces. These skills make the youth employable," it said.

Not everyone is impressed with the department's charity.

One former participant, Ruben Sauls, 29, a father of two from Port Elizabeth, said: "I joined the programme not because I wanted the stipend. I wanted a certificate so that I could start my own business or get into a good construction company, but I got nowhere."

Dawie Roodt, chief economist at financial services company Efficient Group, said the R1.6-billion spent was not a wise investment.

"It could have been spent on building between 20 to 30 small factories," he said.

The department confirmed that some of the 2010 entrants to the programme are yet to be enrolled at FET colleges.

Commenting on the bill for the induction at the Hans Merensky golf estate and in the Kruger National Park, which also accommodated some of the participants, the department said they were the cheapest quotations it had received.

"Training facilities are not available in rural areas," it said. It said finding factories, companies and construction sites where students could get work experience was a challenge. But "there are thousands of positive stories from youths who have benefited".

The department said it considered a claim about the fake log entries as serious and intends investigating it.

It said it had no knowledge of trainees spending nearly a year idle at a guesthouse because they did not have tools.

The department has spent about R12-million on uniforms so far. It recently cancelled a tender for clothing when it failed to find a suitable company. The tender was for a uniform pack for students of 34 items, including swimming costumes and thermal pyjamas.

• govenderp@sundaytimes.co.za